July 2005
| The patients: Frailer and sicker “When assisted living started, people who developed Alzheimer’s had to move to nursing homes,” says Karen Love, founder and chairwoman of the Consumer Consortium on Assisted Living, a consumer advocacy and education group in Falls Church, Va. “Now chains like Sunrise build special floors for Alzheimer’s patients.” Indeed, a study published in October 2004 of 2,078 residents in 193 assisted-living homes in four states, funded by the National Institute on Aging, found that more than half the residents suffer from dementia. “As our residents have grown older, many want to stay in assisted living and avoid nursing homes, so our providers try to accommodate them,” says Richard Grimes, president of the Assisted Living Federation of America, a trade group. “Our hallmark is flexibility.” Yet, a 2002 National Academy for State Health Policy survey of providers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia concluded that increased state flexibility in assisted living has raised concerns about the adequacy of care and the inappropriate retention or discharge of residents. If potentially violent or troublesome residents are retained, they can harm others. Herb Boyle, 82, was such a victim, contends his daughter, Ingrid Shaginoff. On the afternoon of April 1, 2005, he said he was assaulted by his next-door neighbor, a 77-year-old man with dementia. Boyle, who had Parkinson’s disease, had moved into Palmer Pioneers’ Home, a state-run facility in Palmer, Alaska, nine days earlier because his family feared he might fall and injure himself. Doctors told the family that Boyle’s vertebrae and ribs were broken. Subsequently, he contracted pneumonia and died. “I am just outraged this happened when we put him there to be safe,” Shaginoff says. “When I went in to pack my dad’s stuff, that man was still living next door, free to roam around.” Lynda Garcia, the home’s administrator, says that Boyle’s injuries resulted from “an unwitnessed two-person fall.” She adds, “Our internal investigation revealed that nothing inappropriate happened.” The police are investigating, and the autopsy report had not been released at press time. |
